RentSmart selects Capital Incentives & Motivation for third-party incentive programme

Background
Rentsmart is a provider of rental finance for small businesses.  The key product promoted by RentSmart is SmartPlan which is the cash flow friendly way to finance all the equipment needed by small businesses whilst providing the flexibility to ensure that customers keep up to date with new technology.

In order to be able to sell SmartPlan to their business customers, PC World employees needed to undergo product training.  Potential customers are credit-checked and the finance either granted or declined.

Objectives
Rentsmart wanted an incentive programme that would recognise and reward PC World employees for providing business leads.

Specifically, the incentive programme had to:

- increase the number of PC World employees participating in SmartPoints

- increase the volume of leads generated by PC World employees

- increase the average agreement value

- encourage members to redeem points more frequently, which required interaction with the website, therefore allowing further communication with the member.

Solution
RentSmart selected Capital Incentives & Motivation’s Award Management Programme (AMP) to deliver the online third-party incentive programme.

AMP enables clients to design and manage incentive and award schemes, with participants accruing points based on incentive criteria such as sales performance.  It is packed with features such as automatic upload of member details and award data and the ability for participants to check their points balance and select their own reward, which all helps to reduce the internal administration burden on RentSmart.

Operation
The website automatically calculates the points due to each member by assessing the agreement status (accepted or declined) and the agreement value.  Each point awarded equates to £0.01, therefore a member receives £1 even if RentSmart declines an application.

Members can access their personal account anytime using their unique username and password, where they can view their current balance, view each agreement and redeem their awards.

Communication
RentSmart issues regular branded communications to SmartPoints members using various channels including email, fax, post and Regional Development Manager Reviews.

Awards
SmartPoints offers members an enormous choice of award options including Capital Bonds, over 650 merchandise items tailored to appeal to the target audience and a wide range of vouchers including Dixons, Marks & Spencer, Next, John Lewis and WHSmith.

Results
RentSmart has complete control of the incentive administration, communication and management. This includes access to a comprehensive reports module, which has enabled the following to be analysed:

- the pattern of registrations month by month.

- the frequency with which members accessed their personal account

- how members earn the majority of their points

The following results were achieved:

- Year on year growth: 50%

- Store participation has increased by a fifth year on year

- A significant increase on sales penetration on approved deals in PC World

- Average agreement value/volume increase during short-run extra campaigns (offering triple points and accumulator bonus incentives during weekends and bank holidays)

Feedback from SmartPoints members indicated that the majority – over two-thirds enjoyed the incentive of which just fewer than 90% would recommend the incentive to colleagues.